More reactions

Again, I do not think this was a games library preview. But as gamers, we do not ‘see’ hardware, we only ‘see’ the games.

Two small things to note with the multiplayer NBA game on the Switch:

1) Local 2-player is baked into the game. Lots of modern hi-def sports
games have been emphasizing online play and RPG-like campaigns instead
of local multiplayer sessions, so this is encouraging to see. It calls
back to the days of Tecmo Bowl and NBA Jam.

2) They’re playing it with a single stick and only 4 face buttons. This
is NOT the norm. Sports games have become increasingly more complicated
and pretty much require two sticks, the shoulder buttons, etc. This
trailer is obviously a signal that Nintendo wants sports games, but
perhaps more importantly they want sports games to be as accessible as
they were on the Genesis/SNES

The Joy-Cons (ugh, that word!) seem very odd as separate entities. How comfortable will they be to use?

Is local multiplayer in a mobile setting a killer function? Yes. Switch could become a ‘social’ console.

The first thing I noticed was that name “Switch” doesn’t sound like it has to do with games. That’s all I have to say about that.
The second thing I noticed was more 3D Mario. I actually thought 3D Mario World was a decent game but sales proved once again that people prefer 2D Mario. At this point I don’t think even a good 2D Mario game will sell the system because of how miniscule, formulaic and poor the content in the New Super Mario Bros games were.
Not interested in Splatoon. What’s to be interested in? No content. Might as well be Mii’s instead of Inklings.
Mario Kart looks fun as always.
Skyrim and NBA2K look like decent (even if old) titles to launch a console with.
It looks like they are relying on Zelda to carry the system at launch. Which is what they did with the Wii (except we all know Wii Sports not Twilight Princess moved Wii’s at launch). Breath of Wild looks like it could sell system though.
I’ll definitely wait until they show more games off. Not enough new interesting action-adventure games for me to look at it seriously.

Guys, this was not a software preview. This was a system preview. But it goes to show that as gamers that our brains are wired to see only games.

And now an email from Mexico:

Hi Malstrom!
First off, as many have already said, the price and the battery life are big concerns, and the fact that we didn’t see new games is also kinda worrying, maybe they are saving those announcements for another time.
My biggest worry right now is that I don’t see them creating a new market, I mean, why would anyone who didn’t find the wii u interesting would find the Switch interesting? I don’t see how my parents or grandparents would be excited about the switch compared to how intrigued they were by the wii in 2006. The only people who care about Switch right now are the people who cared about the Wii U, it definitely sounds more exciting than something like VR, but I don’t see this thing doing wii numbers.
I’m personally not going to buy it in the forseeable future, here in Mexico, consoles are far more expensive than in the US, and the most important thing is: YOU CANNOT GO TO THE STREET WITH THAT THING!!!! I’m serious, why would I buy the switch when its biggest feature is that you can go outside with it? Every time I go out, I get worried about the fact that maybe I’m carrying too much money, here you have to be worried about someone threatening to shot you just for 50 bucks, now imagine if someone sees me playing that thing in the park! I think nintendo just lost the third world countries, they probably never gave two shits about us, but now I’m pretty sure only the tech media will buy this thing.
P.S. Sorry for the bad english, hope you can understand it.

The Switch is not aiming for a new market so much as being a financial ark. It supports the TV but is largely abandoning it. Nintendo is declaring independence from the TV. Perhaps it is because future trends show the demise of the TV due to screens being all over the place.

Master Malstrom:

Everyone and their mothers are talking about games and controller but I saw something different. I’m part of the people who are leaving TV behind and moving to smartphones to watch media, YouTube, Netflix and also away from computers to surf the internet and use social media. My TV set is just an add on to my ps4, which is my world of tanks system right now. So if Nintendo manages to provide games and app support for the media I use I might stop using my smartphone in my house completely other than WhatsApp and calls. Nice….

Iwata believed Japan was, at least, two years ahead of other countries when it comes to gaming behavior. Before the iPhone, Japanese were already combining their cell phones with cameras and computers for years. Japan has gone full mobile. If you look at the trends of younger generations in the US and other countries, they are growing up primarily full mobile.